Lawful #3: Puritanical Hypocrisy

Imagine a society where those who break the rules don’t merely wear a scarlet letter but actually transform until they are an unrecognizable beast. Such is the world of Lawful. A young man named Sung, determined to do good in his city, finds himself caught between those rules and someone he cares about. Lawful #3 sets out to tell readers exactly what to think about that.

Sung spends the night following a messenger from the Office of the Champion to the mayor’s residence, the city council, and finally the hall of commerce. At each location the messenger delivers an elixir that changes people from being in the process of transforming as punishment back to normal. Lawless #3 follows Sung as he grows progressively more disillusioned with his society. But every attempt he makes to push back on it risks transforming him into a beast.

Lawful #3 isn’t subtle. The series’ first issue introduced the idea of a puritanical society overcompensating with punishment in order to effectively keep its citizens pacified. Nuance infused Sung’s character as he navigated the two sides of this societal examination: the unblemished leaders and the less pure civilians. Lawful #3 dispenses with nuance entirely. Pak makes clear that this society is run by oppressive hypocrites. And via some brief backstory, he strongly suggests that this form of punishment was designed specifically to create two classes in society.

This heavy handed approach doesn’t necessarily make Lawful #3 less compelling. But it does make the issue one dimensional. Barring a major reversal later in the series, there is nothing about its theme that requires any real thought. It is what it is.

The issue continues to work as a surface level fantasy story, though. Lawful’s world is engaging. And even though its message is without nuance, the way it presents it–via people transforming slowly into beasts–is creative. Sung is also a strong main character. His decision making in Lawful #3 is more black and white as compared to the first issue, but he is someone to root for and his relationships with other characters are complex.

Sung’s expressions are much harder in Lawful #3 than they were in the previous two issues. Galindo very effectively captures not only Sung’s change in mood, but the series’ overall change of mood. As the only viewpoint character, Sung is the lens through which the reader views this world. Galindo keeps Sung recognizable here, but his feelings as expressed visually are very different from the first issue. Given the relatively sparse dialogue concerning what Sung has seen, his facial expressions are really the only thing to convey his opinions.

The beasts’ designs are fun and creative. One of the completely transformed characters has the head of a bird, a furry torso and tail, and legs and hands that resemble chicken legs. Other characters are very bizarre with horns and more explicitly mismatched qualities. This has been evident since the first issue and Eris’ odd appearance.

Kniivila’s coloring scheme is muted for the most part, both in color choice and hue. The people who work for the Office of the Champion wear dusty white and beige. The city’s buildings and streets have little color variation. The only things that stand out from a coloring perspective are the trees and those characters who have transformed in various ways. By comparison, these characters feel more alive than the city’s strictly obedient citizens.

There are various examples of characters yelling in Lawful #3, but Bowland uses a bright red font exclusively for the characters who are transforming, including Sung. It’s a simple way to add to the idea that these people are separate from those in the society who are judged to be good and obedient.